! Week 4 – The Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:17-34) Small Group Discussion Questions

1. What makes sharing a meal with people so powerful? 2. How is the Lord’s Supper significant to you? 3. What’s significant about the way in which the Lord’s Supper had become a regular Christian practice? (You might especially like to discuss the term ‘received’ in verse 23.)

Read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 4. What is significant about the way in which Jesus changes the meaning of the Passover? 5. How is the ‘’ in many ways the ‘First Supper’? 6. Can you describe the significance of both the cup and the bread? What was Jesus’ ‘lot’? 7. How did the Passover (both the original and the annual celebrations) point to Jesus? (cf. John 1:29) 8. In what way does the Lord’s Supper anticipate the future supper when Jesus returns? (cf. Revelation 19:9) What do you think that will be like? 9. How does the Lord’s Supper proclaim the death of Jesus? 10. How does it proclaim a new covenant and kingdom? Does this give us a new purpose?

Read 1 Corinthians 11:17-22,27-34 11. What are the key criticisms by Paul of the Corinthians and their approach to the ‘Lord’s Supper’? 12. How did the acts of humiliation, lack of generosity, and callousness demonstrate that they did not understand what the Lord’s Supper (or grace for the matter!) was all about? 13. What does it mean to really participate in the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of Jesus? How can we do this practically? 14. How might we use the Lord’s Supper as an opportunity for self-examination? More particularly, what are the implications for reflecting on our relationships with others? 15. How can we be considerate of others as we participate in the Lord’s Supper?

16. How can we better ready ourselves to participate in the Lord’s Supper each week?

St Bart’s Anglican Church

Talk 4/5 (How & Why We Worship): 03/05/15 “The Lord’s Supper” by the Rev’d Adam Lowe

Bible Passage: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

INTRODUCTION \\ FOR WHAT I RECEIVED

Over the last few weeks, in our series on how and why we worship, we’ve been considering each of the aspects of our worship services, in order that we can participate more fully by understanding each part: because worship drives our beliefs deep down into our hearts. • We gather for worship; We move into confession and assurance; We hear from God’s word, We gather around the Lord’s Table; and We are sent into the world. • Today, we come to week four - The Lord’s Supper. // • Paul at the beginning of this section in 1 Corinthians 11, says:

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you. (v.23)

• And what Paul is saying, when he quotes those famous words of Jesus, is that this is a really important part of our lives as Christians.

!2 • Paul is using the word received in a technical way, meaning that this important practice has been faithfully transmitted, down the generations and across different groups. // • Remember Paul didn’t have a copy of the Gospels, these words have been faithfully communicated and enacted. • The origin of this special meal - be it called the Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist (‘Holy Communion’) is not an invention by the church, but actually it has been received from Jesus Christ himself. That means, there’s an enormous weightiness to what we do. • was the FIRST SUPPER. This is the Jesus Meal. • As Jesus points to his impending death on the cross, this is the meal that stands at the cross roads of the entire history of the world. // • And through it, we can see how everything is held together in Christ. //

So three things as we consider The Lord’s Supper. 1. A Past Origin 2. A New Covenant 3. A Right Approach !3

PART A \\ A PAST ORIGIN (EXODUS 12)

So first, a past origin.

If we want to understand the Lord’s Supper, we have to understand the origin. This is a meal with a history! • The meal that Jesus shared with his friends, the Passover, was the meal that happened every year to celebrate the great act of liberation out of Egypt many centuries ago. • The Israelites were slaves in Egypt and the Pharaoh wouldn’t let them go. • So God sent the Angel of Death to Egypt in judgment so that justice could be done. • The only problem is that the Israelites wouldn’t survive judgment on their own, so God required them to celebrate a meal together, a lamb, and then put the blood of lamb on the door posts so that judgment would passover them. The first passover. • This is not just that the LORD ‘passed over’ them - it means because of the blood of the lamb, they would be spared from the LORD’s judgment. • We heard the very specific instructions for that original meal in the reading for Exodus 12… note that the instructions are from the LORD himself… !4 The animals you choose must be year- old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. (Exodus 12:5-7)

• This was to become an annual festival celebrated - perpetual and unchanging. • And the month of the celebration would in fact become the beginning of the year, because their rescue was so defining of them as a people. // • So it was with great joy that Passover would have be celebrated each year, as a great freedom meal. • That because of the virtue of their ancestors’ liberation, they too had been liberated. • But the meal also pointed to a time when they would be fully rescued. • They knew that lambs at the first Passover didn’t take away sin, they pointed to a time when the sin and brokenness of the world would be finally dealt with. they pointed to a time when someone else would deal with this once and for all. That’s what the prophet Isaiah and many others recognised…

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6) !5

Their ancestors had been rescued, but they still awaited salvation. • This was a meal full of thanks but also full of anticipation. // • But it all changes the night when Jesus celebrates Passover with his friends. • There’s been some mysterious arrangements made, Jesus knows that someone is going to betray him, but the disciples seem none the wiser. • Jerusalem would have swelled with pilgrims, they would have been recounting the stories of the Exodus, it would have seemed like every other Passover that they had celebrated, but then Jesus CHANGES THE WORDS.

!6 PART B \\ A NEW COVENANT (1 COR 11:23-26)

Jesus takes this ancient meal, and he makes it about himself. He gives it new meaning. He says… • You’ve been waiting for freedom, I’m going to give you a freedom that lasts. • You've been waiting for life, I’m going to make it possible through my death. • This is the night a New Covenant, a new promise between God and the World, will be struck in my blood.

23…the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

The disciples, whilst having moments of insight, still really didn’t get who Jesus was. They certainly didn’t anticipate his death!

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• Yet when he takes the bread - he’s making it abundantly clear: this is my body, my body which will be broken, for you. • When he takes the cup - he’s making it abundantly clear: this is my blood, my blood which will be shed, for you. // • The greek word for cup not only means ‘cup’, but also means ‘lot’ or ‘fate’. • In Mark 10, James and John come to Jesus and say we want to sit at your right and left-hand in glory. In effect, we want your lot, your fate, to be ours. • Jesus says, you don’t know what you’re asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink… • Later that night, after the Passover, overwhelmed by the fate awaiting him, Jesus prays, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want. (Matthew 26:39) • When the authorities come to arrest Jesus and Peter draws his sword, Jesus says “Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?” (John 18:11) // • The purchase price for their freedom and our freedom is a cup, a fate so large, so heavy, so deep and broad, that only Jesus Christ could take it up. • He takes our lot upon himself willingly.

!8 In the account that was received, no one ever mentions the lamb. • And that’s because that night the lamb is the one who celebrates the meal. “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29) • Jesus is saying: my death is the climatic event to which everything in the history of salvation, every deliverance, every victory, every sign of grace has pointed to. // • In the Old Covenant, people could approach God only through priests and the sacrificial system. But Jesus’ death on the cross establishes a New Covenant through which every single person can approach God through Jesus Christ. • A day when God writes the law in our hearts. • A day when the Lord knows us and we can know him. • A day when our sins are forgiven. • Jesus is saying, that day has come!

And so when we come to the Lord’s Supper… • we’re remembering what Jesus has done for us, we’re proclaiming, we’re announcing, this great news, until he returns again.

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• That was Jesus’ command - to do this in remembrance of him. But this is more than just mere memorial or recollection. • Because we believe that as we celebrate this meal, that Jesus is with us. Not literally the body and blood, but we have his presence with us. // • It think the word ‘remember’ has become a bit weak in common-day English. we tend to use remember as the opposite of ‘not forgetting’. But it’s so much more. • The opposite of ‘remember’ is actually ‘dismember’, so to remember means to not only to recall, but also to graft and fuse this into our reality. • We have a God who is so intimate with us! // • When we participate in the Lord’s Supper, when we remember that Jesus died for us, he puts bread in our hands and says this is my body which was broken for you, this is my body which you are now part of. • When he puts the cup in our hands, it reminds us that he took our lot, he died for our sins, that we are now part of a new covenant, and a new Kingdom, in which he is present with us now. • This meal a great proclamation that a new Kingdom, a new covenant is bursting into the world, and you can be part of it by believing in Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. !10 PART C \\ A RIGHT APPROACH (1 COR 11:17-22,27-34)

So how then should we come to this meal?

Well, we have an example of the wrong approach in 1 Corinthians 11… in fact Paul is completely and utterly scathing:

17 In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. 18 In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it… [to] 20 So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, 21 for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk.

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If you ever open a letter and the first sentence begins with the phrase “I have no praise for you”, it probably is not going to be very good news! • He has no praise, they do more harm than good, there are devisions, one remains hungry, another gets drunk, you humiliate those who have nothing, and then ultimately at the heart of it, Paul asserts this is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat. • They have completely missed the point!

It’s important to understand that the first Christians celebrated the Lord’s Supper after having shared a full meal together. • But actually what was happening was that either some were so rude, so judging of others that they would simply gobble their own food down and then take off. • The wealthy ones were bringing a lot of food and being gluttons, whilst others who were poor had nothing or very little to eat. • There was no sense of family in the Lord, each division kept to themselves. !12 • They were humiliating some, being callous to others. • The very meal which is meant to point to grace, that we are saved by what God has done and not what we have done, is actually being completely contradicted. • They had failed to understand the heart of the Gospel that there is no longer slave or free, rich or poor, male or female, Jew or Gentile. But they are one in Christ. • Paul says that they’re bringing judgment on themselves: we don’t know if this is that some are dying because they are starving, or if this is actually some form of divine discipline due to the disobedience. //

Paul says, that we’ve got to come to this meal in a worthy manner. That doesn't mean of course that we earn it or we’re perfect, we’re just being reminded that there’s a right approach.

If it’s just a ritual, or a pious habit, we’re going to miss the point too.

So I just want to suggest three things as we approach the Lord’s Supper. • First, we must be thoughtful. That is, us remembering the death of Christ and his return must be in the fore-front of our minds. There should be due reverence and respect to Christ, not just jumping in without any meaning. !13

• Second, we must use this as an opportunity for self-examination: We’ve already looked at confession, but the Lord’s Supper is an opportunity to be real with God so that our hearts are overflowing with thanks. It is also means that if there is a division that you have with someone here, you’re not speaking with them, or you’re harbouring judgment, or something like that, seek to resolve it. That doesn’t mean any of us with a bad relationship can’t receive communion, but use this time to repent, ask forgiveness, and make a commitment to reconcile with them. • Finally, we must be considerate of others: Paul says practically here to wait for one another so that you can eat together. We don’t have that problem, but there’s many things we can do to be considerate. We can explain it to someone who is new. We can assist those who are less physically able. We can be quiet once we’ve received, so that those still waiting have less distraction. We can ensure that our brothers and sisters are loved outside of the Lord’s Supper, not just during this part of our service.

!14 CONCLUSION \\ BLANK SLIDE

In Revelation, as Jesus returns and the Kingdom of God is fulfilled, one of the great images of what that will be like is a wedding supper with the lamb. Friends can you imagine how exciting that day will be! • There is nothing like feasting with friends, but that day we will feast with our Lord and our Creator. • No more tears, no more pain, no more sin, no more death. • And until that day, we keep celebrating the meal that he gave us: Remembering all that Jesus has done, Proclaiming that until he returns.

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